Geordie comedian Chris Ramsey is delighted after being paired up with his trainer and dance partner for 2019's Strictly Come Dancing.

After watching the Great North Run on Sunday with his family, Chris shared a clip on his Instagram at 11am on Monday saying: "On my way to my first full dance training session."

The South Shields stand-up comic, who has a podcast with wife Rosie called Shagged Married Annoyed joined the other 16 celebrities in the launch show to announce all the pairings.

And he was very happy to be partnered with Karen Hauer, the former wife of last year's winning professional Kevin Clifton. Karen told Chris afterwards: "I cannot wait to get you in the studio rocking and rolling!" Wife Rosie declared that Karen is her favourite female professional.

Chris had joked that his favourite dance move was to the buffet table and he had "the dance moves of an elephant" but he looked in fine form during the launch dance finale, which was the first chance to see how the celebrities might shape up.

Viewer Al Nash tweeted: "For the record, I’d just want to say that your not the joke act this year, you seemed to have more rhythm and potential than most."

Chris told Lorraine Kelly in a TV interview last week that he was hooked on dancing after the initial group training session - but worries about tripping up on air.

And he tweeted: "I’m pretty sure Karen Hauer is going to make me taste blood... but I’m ready for it!"